In advance copy of his remarks provided to the Wall Street Journal, Cuomo also includes a 10-part plan to strengthen equality laws for women, as well as a set of “progressive” proposals: decriminalizing marijuana in small amounts, reforming the state’s campaign finance laws by providing for public financing of campaigns and lowering contribution limits, and increasing the state’s minimum wage from $7.25 to $8.75 an hour.

Those proposals, which the governor said he would push late last year, are seen by some as the governor’s attempt to curry favor with liberals, who have criticized him for doing too little to help members of his own party before last November’s election. In previous addresses, the governor focused largely on a moderate, pro-business economic agenda that stressed balanced budgets and spending cuts.

He also plans to propose a broad new economic development agenda aimed at bringing travelers to upstate New York, including a system of duty-free stores that would sell New York-grown and produced products such as wine and yogurt to consumers tax-free. Other ideas included developing businesses around the state’s academic research universities.

Among the most potentially divisive of his proposals were a set of ideas to strengthen the state’s already strict gun laws. The proposals make him among the first lawmakers to propose changes in gun laws in the wake of the school shooting in Newtown, Conn.

Cuomo will propose strengthening the state’s assault weapons ban by prohibiting all large gun ammunition magazines, even those manufactured prior to 1994.

“Some weapons are so dangerous and some ammunition devices so lethal that we simply cannot afford to continue selling them in our state,” Cuomo’s planned remarks said.

“With military-style features that are unneeded and unwanted for hunting and sporting purposes, assault weapons are this kind of weapon. And large capacity magazines are this kind of ammunition device,” the speech read.

New York already has some of the strictest gun control laws in the nation and is one of only seven states that has an assault weapons ban on its books. But Cuomo has said that the state’s ban is full of loopholes.

In his speech, he will also propose a new state standard requiring routine background checks on gun owners, to ensure that convicted felons and other prohibited persons do not possess firearms. He will also propose background checks for all gun sales, not just transactions made through gun dealers or gun shows.

He’ll also propose a new mental health law that would allow mental health providers to report when patients threaten violence against themselves or others, leading to revocation or suspension of the patient’s gun license. Other planned initiatives include a statewide gun licensing database as well as enhanced criminal penalties for crimes committed with illegal guns on school property, for illegal gun purchases and for “violent and serious drug-related gang activity.” The final proposal is an expansion of a statewide law enforcement program targeting gang violence.

Cuomo’s announcement, delivered less than a month after the shootings in Connecticut, comes as Vice President Joe Biden begins a series of planned discussions with stakeholders including the National Rifle Association on possible changes to federal gun laws.

Cuomo has been negotiating with the state’s political leaders on a package of bills since the shootings occurred, and both the Republican-dominated Senate and the Democrat-led Assembly appeared willing in recent days to cede ground on an issue that has polarized them.

The Senate Republicans were willing to consider strengthening the assault weapons ban, passed by Republican former Gov. George Pataki in 2000, as long as Cuomo agreed to increase penalties on illegal gun crime. And Assembly Democrats, long opposed to those increased penalties, have been openly willing to increasing them in recent days, increasing the likelihood that Cuomo can pass the proposals outlined in his address.

“Guns have both a noble and a tragic tradition in America and in New York State,” his prepared remarks said. “They are a sign of our nation’s fiercely defended independence and self-reliance.”

“In the wrong hands, guns are also weapons of untold destruction and heartbreak. As the tragic events of just the last few weeks in Newtown, CT, and West Webster, NY, have indelibly taught, guns can cut down small children, firefighters and policemen in a moment. Nationwide, almost 70 % of criminal homicides are committed with guns,” the remarks said.

The governor’s address Wednesday said nothing about the controversial practice of natural gas drilling known as hydraulic fracturing, or hydrofracking, which is already legal in several states. The governor has delayed a decision on whether or not to allow the practice in the state since he came into office in 2010.

That delay sparked criticism from the business community and some lawmakers in the state’s western and southern regions, who say hydrofracking will create jobs and boost the regions’ fragile economies. Cuomo faces equally boisterous opposition from environmental health advocates and celebrities such as Yoko Ono and Mark Ruffalo, who oppose fracking, and say the process could lead to contamination of the state’s water supply.

More than a thousand anti-fracking protesters gathered Wednesday at the entrance to the speech in a building in the state’s capitol.

“I want the invasion stopped at the border,” said Yvonne Lucia, a protester who traveled from Binghamton to stand outside the governor’s address. Lucia said she voted for the governor in 2010, but said Cuomo would lose her vote if he allows drilling to proceed, should he decide to run for a second term. “He should ban fracking and move toward a green energy economy.”

The address also did not mention one of the governor’s biggest economic development initiatives of the past year- an idea for a new convention center in New York City, that he proposed locating at the side of the Aqueduct Casino in Queens. That idea failed to gain traction as business leaders criticized the site as too remote to be practical.